Can’t they all lose?In order to prepare for the worst, Quebecers must first decide what the worst is.

The Toronto Star‘s Chantal Hébert suggests a minority government might be the best possible outcome for Quebecers: Charest is “a competent fiscal manager,” and “his knowledge of the country is a significant asset” at a time when support for sovereignty is low; but a minority would ensure he could be punished if serious corruption allegations are borne out. A minority Parti Québécois government, meanwhile, would force the hardliners into silence and force Marois to actually govern, which she might not be terrible at. And a Coalition Avenir Québec minority, says Hébert, would give the party a chance to grow and “mature,” just as the Conservatives did in Ottawa. There’s also the fact, needless to say, that none of these parties remotely deserve anything more.

“Quebec is unable to attract sufficient immigrants; many of those who do arrive come from some of the poorest places on earth, and many of the more affluent head straight to another province,” John Ibbitson writes in TheGlobe and Mail. And yet no major party leader seems the slightest bit willing to make the province more welcoming to the very people they need to forestall its “slow-motion demographic suicide.” This is a bad thing.

The MontrealGazette‘s editorialists think PQ leader Pauline Marois’ proposed “secularism charter” for public employees is mostly moot, considering the province’s “woeful record of hiring members of cultural minorities in the civil service, despite rising numbers of immigrants from North Africa and the rest of the developing world.” This is another bad thing.

More badness: The Star‘s Haroon Siddiqui deplores both Marois’ intolerant “demagoguery” and Premier Jean Charest’s unwillingness to stand firm against it. “By all means, keep the cross in the National Assembly. It is part of Quebec’s heritage,” he concludes. “Keep the Christmas trees, indeed celebrate Christmas. But stop sacrificing minority rights at the altar of majority insecurities.” An excellent idea.

The National Post‘s Graeme Hamilton observes that while Charest “can take credit for pushing through an unpopular law that helped restore order” after the student protests, the currently ongoing capitulation of those protesters isn’t doing him any favours. “The unruly ‘street’ he sought to associate with Parti Québécois leader Pauline Marois, who joined in the students’ pot-banging protests, has gone quiet, and voters’ attention is focused instead on the Liberal record.”

The Globe’s John Ibbitson previews the Conservatives’ game plan in the event of a PQ government: They’ll “just say no” to the immediate demands for various unique provincial powers, claim to be “focused” solely “on the economy” and “urge the government in Quebec to do likewise,” and hope that’s enough to counteract the dissent Marois & Cie. hope to foment. If it did all wind up in another referendum campaign, though, he thinks the Conservatives, lacking any credible federalist voices of their own, would sooner “acquiesce in having [Thomas] Mulcair assume the mantle” than any Liberal, such as Justin Trudeau. We sure hope so. For one thing, Mulcair would be much better at it.

Speaking of Justin Trudeau, Postmedia’s Michael Den Tandt profiles him at length, casting him as an excellent, wily and “genuinely, immensely likable” retail politician who has perfected the art — among a certain audience, anyway — of seeming genuine without being overly earnest. He’s also a policy vacuum, of course, but Den Tandt thinks he knows what Trudeau’s basic pitch will be: “He’ll cast himself as a fiscal conservative and social progressive. He’ll argue that [Mulcair] has alienated the West while Harper has alienated Quebec. … He’ll make a direct appeal to Ontario, and especially Quebec, and try to lift the Grits back within range of contention for power.”

Unfunny moneyThe Star’s Heather Mallick finds it “shocking” that Canadians in focus groups would be so “provincial” as to object to an “Asian-looking” scientist depicted on a proposed (now abandoned) new $100 bill … and then blathers on at length about various nonsense, but never mind that. What we find odd is that most of the concerns don’t seem “provincial” at all, but actually rather sophisticated: The proposed banknote was yellow-brown; did that make it “racialized”? Shouldn’t more than one ethnicity be represented? Was it playing off Asian stereotypes? Isn’t this precisely the sort of obsessive multicultural claptrap that lefty Canadians send their kids to university to learn about?

That said, the whole thing is indeed ridiculous. The Bank of Canada doesn’t have to “listen to every opinion,” as the Ottawa Citizen’s editorialists say. They point out that “some people in focus groups objected to seeing naked ladies or The World Trade Center on Canada’s new $20 bill (which shows the sculpture-adorned columns of the Vimy Memorial),” and were appropriately rebuffed. Mallick, incidentally, calls Walter Allward’s magnificent monument “a big boring sculpture that looks like the CN Tower with curly bits” — which in addition to being nonsensical (objectively it does not look like that) made us rather angry. But hey, we’d rather be angry than bored or baffled.

Take this job and restaff itIn the Halifax Chronicle-Herald, Scott Taylor promotes Lt.-Gen. Peter Devlin as an “excellent choice” for the next chief of defence staff, citing his proven “mettle in action,” from the Balkans to Iraq, and a leadership style that “appears to inspire confidence and loyalty from those who have served with him.” Lt.-Gen. Andrew Leslie is a more widely touted candidate, however — including by Sun Media’s Peter Worthington — not least because of his proven record of finding “efficiencies” hiding in the budget.

Philippe Lagassé, writing in the Citizen, thinks whoever takes the job may wind up regretting it. The army, navy and air force “will be compelled to accept either fewer prized platforms, less-capable equipment, or the loss of certain capacities. Needless to say, they will not be pleased.” On the other hand, this person will have to manage a “growing skepticism about [the Canadian Forces’] role in recent defence procurement problems” — and declining enthusiasm in general from politicians and the public, without a mission like Afghanistan to galvanize support.

Duly notedA strong contender for Most Embarrassing Op-Ed of the Year comes from University of Toronto criminology professor (!) Mariana Valverde in the Star. She suggests that Toronto Mayor Rob Ford suffers form “sissyphobia,” which his why, among other misdeeds, he refuses to be driven around town or to drive himself properly. “Other white male conservatives with unusually high levels of testosterone … listen to their press people’s advice and they avoid situations where streetcar drivers, pinko cyclists and car drivers of all political hues can easily observe the behaviour of the White Male Conservative Politician in his natural environment, namely the SUV,” she writes. And it goes on like that until it ends.

George Jonas, writing in the Post, argues that the lawns of Toronto’s Queen’s Park shouldn’t be open to an Al Quds Day demonstration that went a bit iffy last year, because while he’s “big on free speech,” he’s “not big on providing soapboxes.” “Freedom of speech entitles me to the first available spot in Hyde Park,” he explains. “It doesn’t entitle me to halt traffic in Piccadilly Circus.” We agree … but surely the grounds in question are much more like Hyde Park than Piccadilly Circus. We can see an argument that Queen’s Park is a particularly evocative park, being home to the provincial legislature. But that doesn’t seem to be what Jonas is saying. We may have missed the point.

And Conrad Black and family have added to their Bridle Path menagerie by rescuing some feral kittens. But you National Post readers already knew about that.

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